Murder Squad to quiz father after five die in blaze

Murder squad detectives were waiting to interview a father of five last night after his wife and four daughters died in their blazing home.

Mohammed Riaz, 40, was unconscious after suffering severe burns in the fire, which was deliberately started at the family's end-of-terrace house early yesterday.

Neighbours revealed that he had been struggling to come to terms with the terminal illness of his only son, Adam, whom he had visited in hospital hours before the blaze.

It claimed the lives of his wife Caneze, 39, and daughters Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 15, Alisha, ten, and Hannah, three.

Police revealed that the doors to the house in Accrington, Lancashire, were locked from the inside - trapping the victims and forcing firemen to smash through a bay window. Mrs Riaz and her daughters were found dead in the same bedroom. Mr Riaz was critically ill in a specialist burns unit.

His 17-year-old son is receiving treatment for leukaemia and had been given three months to live.

Members of the family had spent much of Tuesday visiting Adam in Christie Hospital, Manchester. Neighbour Anayat Mohammed, 40, said: 'Mr Riaz found his son's terminal illness very hard to deal with.'

Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell said 'accelerants', such as petrol or paraffin, had been used to start several blazes, adding that whoever set fire to the house did not leave the building.

'The cause of the fire is therefore deliberate. The house was secured and locked from the inside. Early indications are that whoever set the fire did not leave the premises. However, I can't discount that a scene has been staged to suggest this.' Mr Gradwell said it was a 'top line of inquiry' to speak to Mr Riaz, a plastics worker.

Mrs Riaz, who was of mixed race, was a tireless campaigner for racial harmony.

She headed a child improvement programme at a local cultural association and was a leading figure in an anti-racism programme in football known as Kick It Out, spreading her message to several clubs including Blackburn Rovers, Burnley and Accrington Stanley.

She was introduced to her Pakistani husband through her late father, Abdul.

It is understood they had an arranged marriage in Britain but Mrs Riaz was far more westernised than her husband. Her mother June, 58, is from Bolton.

Mrs Riaz's uncle, Francis Entwistle, 50, said: 'The last time I saw Caneze and the girls was at Adam's 17th birthday party a few weeks ago.

'We all knew it could be his last birthday and Caneze threw all her energy into throwing a big party to cheer him up with all his family and friends.'

Despite visiting his niece and her daughters regularly, Mr Entwistle said he had met Mr Riaz only twice. 'Mohammed didn't speak much English and never really seemed to have much to say.'

Zeenat Begum, 24, Mrs Riaz's best friend, looked after the younger children on Tuesday night while the family visited Adam in Christie hospital, Manchester.

She said: 'It just doesn't seem real. I only spoke to her a matter of hours before the fire.

'Caneze texted me at about midnight and everything seemed fine. I had dropped the girls off because I was looking after them while she visited Adam.

'Then just a couple of hours later we got a phone call saying the house was on fire. By the time I got down there they were bringing the bodies out.'